Hundreds of people marched Sunday in France to honor an Iranian Kurdish man who took his own life in a desperate act of anguish over the nationwide protests in Iran. French police estimated the crowd that gathered for Mohammad Moradi at about 1,000 people. They marched in the city of Lyon, where the 38-year-old Moradi drowned in December in the Rhone river, the AP reports. In videos in Farsi and French recorded before his death, Moradi criticized Iran's leadership and called for solidarity from Western governments against it. The recordings include him saying, "When you see this video, I will be dead."
The protesters Sunday marched with placards that read "stop executions in Iran" and other slogans. Some traveled from other parts of France. Hundreds of protesters also gathered in Rome and London in support of the Iranian protest movement. Moradi arrived in France in 2019 with his wife and was pursuing a doctorate in history. His death resonated among the Iranian diaspora. "Mohammad took his life with incredible courage," said Lili Mohadjer, one of the Lyon march organizers, who addressed the crowd. "His hope was that the media and Western governments continue to support the Iranian people." The protests in Iran began in mid-September, over the death of Mahsa Amini. The 22-year-old woman died after being arrested by Iran’s morality police for allegedly violating the Islamic Republic's dress code.
Sunday's marchers in Lyon shouted Moradi's name. They also observed a minute of silence for him and for two men that Iran said it executed on Saturday for killing a paramilitary volunteer during a demonstration. In London, protesters waved Iran's pre-revolutionary flag as they marched to Trafalgar Square and carried banners with pictures of demonstrators killed by Islamic Republic authorities. They chanted "woman, life, freedom," a slogan of the Iranian movement. Outside the Iranian Embassy in Rome, per the AP, demonstrators chanted “killers!” and stacked up boxes outside its closed doors containing signed petitions. Turin and other Italian cities and towns also saw protests against Iran's crackdown.
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